Vinyl ethers are an important class of materials that find wide spread use in a variety of applications. For instance, they can be used in radiation curable compositions, as monomeric building blocks in polymers and copolymers, in coatings and adhesives, as surfactants, as reactive diluents, and in printing inks.
Vinyl ethers are generally produced industrially by the Reppe process. The process involves an addition reaction between acetylene and an alcohol in the presence of a catalyst. The process, however, is disadvantageous because the acetylene is difficult to handle and may give rise to decomposition and explosions at a high pressure. Thus, complex controls are required for handling of the acetylene. In addition, while some structural diversity of products can be provided by varying the structure of the alcohol, suitable acetylene derivatives are not widely available, thus limiting the variety of compounds that can be prepared.
It would be a significant advance in the art to provide new, structurally diverse, vinyl ether compounds, and processes for making them.